In a continuous rod warhead an explosive charge propells a series of interconnected rods radially outward in order to cut and destroy a target. In most of these warheads the charge is in the shape of an annulus or cylinder and the rods are disposed longitudinally in a parallel fashion around the perimeter of the charge. Adjacent rods are joined together by welds at their ends so that upon detonation of the explosive charge the rods expand toward a continuous circle.
A serious problem associated with prior art continuous rod warheads has been the uneveness of the explosive impulse applied to the rods along their lengths. In order to minimize this problem we have tested initiation of an explosive charge at a center location and an end location, by both plane wave initiation and point initiation techniques. We have found that a booster located at the center of one end of the explosive charge provided the best results, however, the impulse applied to the rods is still uneven upon detonation of the cylindrical explosive charge. The result of this uneven impulse is the breaking of the rods. When the rods break they scatter in various directions and leave large gaps so as to lessen the kill probability of the warhead. The most desirable condition is for the rods to expand in a continuous interconnected relationship toward a circle so as to ensure impact with any target within the plane of such circle. It should be noted that the rods could be made strong enough to withstand the maximum impulse variation by increasing their size, however, this decreases the dynamic capabilities of the weapon and its kill probability.